Pakistani journalist here seeking knowledge, understanding

Ali Raza Lehri is the chief editor and part owner of the newspaper, Daily Asr-e-nau, and Weekly Endeavor in Quetta, the capital and largest city in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The daily is published in Urdu; the weekly in English.

He arrived at my home Saturday evening after four days in Washington as part of the International Center for Journalists professional exchange involving U.S. and Pakistani journalists. He will spend three weeks at the Tallahassee Democrat, our fourth Pakistani journalist to visit as part of the ICFJ program.

Ali Raza Lehri arrives at the Tallahassee Democrat to begin work.

But Lehri is different from our other guests. He is soft spoken and courageous; he has to be to operate a newspaper with his brother in Balochistan, which may be the most troubled area of Pakistan. Quetta is nestled near the border with Afghanistan and close to the NATO supply line that has been the subject of so much controversy.

For a while, after NATO forces attacked Pakistani troops operating near the border in a communication breakdown, Pakistan closed the supply line, even after the U.S. belatedly apologized. The incident late last year brought into question the whole U.S.-Pakistani relationship, which was still hurting from the discovery of Osama bin Laden in May.

Quetta is the front line of the joint U.S. and Pakistani war on terrorism. Millions of Afghan refugees fleeing the war have spilled over into Balochistan and are in camps all along the border. For Lehri, educating his readers about health care, the need for vaccinations and schooling for children, and other basics Americans take for granted are part of his daily news columns.

He is the type of editor who does more than rely on his news pages to change the fate of his readers’ lives; I’ve seen pictures of him helping to distribute food supplies and other necessities to people in his province.

He is an example of why it has been so important to me to get involved with the ICFJ and in particular this program. His region is so volatile, the foreigners are kept away as much as possible. When I traveled to Pakistan in February, we were kept out.

The ICFJ program offers a “chance of a lifetime” for Lehri, he told me. A chance to learn how to serve his readers better and to meet Americans, a people who have touched his country so profoundly in so many ways.

Lehri runs all aspects of his newspaper: news, advertising, distribution, administration and finance. He has about 40 employees and is preparing to put his newspaper online for the first time. They operate technically free of government control since the rise of democracy a decade ago, but still must have a government license to operate, and government legal advertisements — with rates set by government — are an important part of their revenues.

Within hours of his arrival, we were on Tallahassee.com, and I was teaching him about our associated products on mobile and tablet platforms, places where he must eventually go with his newspaper if he is to reach the masses. His newspaper already has a Facebook page, and he is beginning to do social media. He has promised to write about himself and his goals in coming here later this week.

I’m convinced we can create better understanding and make a difference in relationships between our countries through journalism. The U.S. State Department, which provides much of the funding for the program, agrees. Through their own programs, Florida State University and other American and Pakistani universities are doing similar work.

We already have had some successes, with many of us from the time I went to Pakistan staying in touch, sharing information and friendship. Mentoring and helping to improve journalism skills and knowledge of how to use technology are all a part of the outcomes.

I will be taking Lehri around the community. He will see things with his own eyes that he has only heard about, things as diverse as an American primary election and shopping at a super grocery store and seeing row after row of choices.

He is already impressed with the physical beauty of our city. I know he will be impressed with our people, too. These are things — along with new insights into how to improve his business and his journalism — he will take home with him to Quetta and to the people of Balochistan.
You can send comments by clicking on Bob Gabordi’s blog on Tallahassee.com, e-mailing him at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to his blogs on Facebook. His mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. His telephone number is (850) 599-2177.

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You can send comments by clicking on Bob Gabordi’s blog on Tallahassee.com or Move.Tallahassee.com, e-mailing him at bgabordi@tallahassee.com, sending a private message on Tallahassee.com and Twitter @bgabordi. You can also find links to his blogs on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. His mailing address is Bob Gabordi, Executive Editor, Tallahassee Democrat, P.O. Box 990, Tallahassee, FL 32302. His telephone number is 850-599-2177.